There were wins and losses yesterday, and they are not all decided at 2 am, when I wrote this post. Some states have not yet declared a winner (thinking of Wisconsin, where I hope that Scott Walker was beaten).
Some losses that I mourn: Beto O’Rourke; Stacey Abrams; Andrew Gillum. All defeated by reactionaries of the worst sort.
Some significant victories:
Democrats gained control of the House of Representatives, which means they have the power of the purse, the power to hold hearings, and the power to block some of Trump’s worst plans. That is huge. Hurrah for checks and balances!
Vouchers were overwhelmingly beaten in Arizona by the teachers and moms of SOS Arizona, who scored a knock-out punch against the Koch brothers, giving vouchers their 21st consecutive loss at the ballot box. The margin was 2-1 against vouchers. Congratulations, SOS Arizona!
Real Democrats gained control of the New York State Senate, ousting the fake Independent Democratic Caucus, who voted with Republicans.
In a very close race, it appears that Democrat Tony Evers beat the vile Scott Walker for Governor of Wisconsin.
Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, was elected Governor of Michigan.
Janet Mills, a Democrat, was elected Governor of Maine, and the outgoing Governor Paul LePage announced he was relocating to Florida.
Laura Kelly, a Democrat, was elected Governor of Kansas, beating Trump acolyte Kris Kobach.
Billionaire Democrat Pritzker beat billionaire Republican Rauner in Illinois.
Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, was elected Governor of New Mexico, ending the war on teachers in that stare.
All three states that gave Trump his margin of victory in 2026–Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania—are now controlled by Democrats.
It would have been great to take the Senate, but let’s rejoice about taking the zHouse, beating vouchers in Arizona, and winning important governorships.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thank you NJ, for maintaining the blue wave. Boo to Texas and Florida, what is the matter with Texans and Floridians? I almost wish Texas and Florida would secede and start their own fascist republics. Thank goodness Scott Walker finally is out as governor. What a great sentence: Scott walker lost!!!! Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah! If Walker had won again, I was planning on resigning from the human race and joining a clan of iguanas in the Galapagos islands.
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In California, while I’m disappointed Fake Democrat Tuck won state superintendent, I remember that the much greater race was won by Democrat Newsom for governor when he beat Fake Democrat Villaraigosa and Republican Cox.
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Agree, dear pal o’mine. And I keep chuckling over Colorado where a Gay Jewish man is the new Governor. And 107 women all over the nation now elected to office. Almost had a stroke however over the Whitaker appointment, but now I have heard that most of the records of the Mueller investigation are safe. Wonder about all the lawsuits pressed by CREW and Noah Bookbinder and Laurence Tribe. Will they still go forward? But then I go back to the fantastic variety of ethnic heritages of our new Congres…and that is such a HUGE take away.
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PLEASE write me at elubic@aol.com…since AOL took down all my other addresses.
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Is Tuck’s win final?
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Russia’s Rohrabacher may lose his seat. Racist Iowans continue to like their guy, Steve King. The indicted Trump supporter, Duncan Hunter, retains his seat.
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education and commented:
Another huge loss was the Lt. Governor’s race in Texas. By re-electing little dan patrick it will ensure that school funding continues to decrease, vouchers will continue to be brought up and any other waste of time item he brings to the Senate. UGH!!
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We had an enormous blue wave in Colorado! Democrats now have a trifecta in state government as well as state treasurer, attorney general, and a newly flipped House seat.Savoring the victory. I read that Boulder County had an 84% voter turnout. That’s incredible!
In my home state of Wisconsin, it appears Evers has defeated the Koch puppet Scott Walker. It feels like the morning after a horrific wildfire, looking out at a devastated landscape. Now the rebuilding begins.
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“Now the rebuilding begins.”
Maybe people will value public education more now that they know they can lose it. I think people just assume it will always be operating in the background and they’re wrong about that- they really could lose it.
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Great news for public school families in Wisconsin and Michigan.
Unfortunately we got the exact same collection of anti-public school leaders in Ohio- literally exactly the same people- but they have very little interest in public education so it’s probably a continuation of Kasich, where nothing at all was done to or for public schools.
Sometimes being utterly ignored by powerful people is a good thing 🙂
I would tell people to watch the preschool initiatives carefully. Look at the funding. They’ll try to pull funding from existing public schools and transfer it to prek. Don’t let them hoodwink you. When they say “prek ” immediately look whether they’ve funded it. If they haven’t they intend to take it out of existing public school funding. As always, follow the money.
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Great news that the Democrats have taken the House. That should mean that we won’t see any more tax cut legislation or laws killing off the ACA — for the next two years, at least. And we will finally see subpoenas flying.
Bad news that the Republicans have strengthened their grip over the Senate. Trump now essentially has absolute power on all appointments that need Senate confirmation.
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Not to mention that Senate Republicans now have even more power to win near-party-line votes on legislation. The Dems will miss those lost seats.
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To be fair, it’s not like a single Trump appointee was ever in danger of not being confirmed by the Senate, so nothing has changed there.
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He’s had a couple appointees who’ve been forced to bow out because they lacked the Senate votes. Although I would suspect that the margins there were very wide.
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The worst aspect of GOPcontrol of the Senate is two more years of packing the federal Judiciary with Evangelicals and libertarians
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Hard to say with certainty that it was a deciding factor, but also hard not to observe that outgoing Senators Heitkamp, Donnelly, McCaskill,and Bill Nelson all voted against Kavanaugh.
Joe Manchin is still around.
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It’s huge for Michigan. I don’t think their public schools would survive another ed reform governor. They’ve lost ground for a decade. Now they can start to rebuild after the lost decade. They’ll be starting further back than when ed reform captured the state, but public schools are resilient and they’ll recover.
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I wonder if they can overturn the Illinois voucher give-away by referendum. That was just incredibly heavy-handed and lobbyist driven. The whole thing was conducted behind closed doors and public schools got absolutely nothing out of the deal they struck.
It stank to high heaven. Some back room deal between Catholic bishops, Rauners people and corrupt Democrats. Yuck. Overturn that mess.
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I am pleased overall. It looks like turnout was way up, w/enough pos results to keep new/ returning Dem voters involved.
In my small NJ city, polls were busy busy busy all day long, very unusual for midterms. We managed to replace longtime popular centrist Rep congressman w/a not-terrific Dem: that has Trump, & Dem turnout, written all over it.
Dems in FL need to stay strong & keep plugging: so proud they brought Gillum w/n .7% of a win. And Scott only nudged Nelson out w/.4%, more because of his good hurricane mgt than his politics. FL is not a lost cause, tho TX appears to b
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While the Dems didn’t win a lot of statewide elections, the Governor, Lt. Governor and Attorney General were lots closer than 4 years ago. By the next election, Texas could move closer to being a democratic state.
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This is what we’re up against, folks; this is the state of the country: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/brothel-owner-dennis-hof-wins-nevada-election-752930/
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here is another
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenniferwang/2018/11/07/from-jb-pritzker-to-donald-trump-see-the-billionaire-winners-and-losers-this-midterm-election/#13414a7464d2
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Sorry Mick and Kieth…
Things are different today
I hear every other say
Hooking people to the myths is a drag
So they pitch an instant fake, then shudder in the wake
And go running for the shelter of myth’s many helpers
To help them on their way, get them through their lack of pay
Politicians please, some more of these
Outside the roars, we look for more
What a drag it is getting sold
Men just aren’t the same today
I hear every other say
They just don’t appreciate all the ire
They’re so hard to satisfy, they must tranquilize our minds
While were running for the shelter of the electoral non-helper
To whelp us through the fight, to minimize our right.
Politicians please, some more of these
Outside the roars, we look for more
What a drag it is getting sold
Life’s just much too hard today
I hear every other say
The pusuit of connectedness beyond the lore
And if you take the lore of those, you will get an overdose
No more running for the shelter of myth’s little helpers
They just helped you on your way, through your busy dying day
Politicians please, some more of these
Outside the roars, we look for more
What a drag it is getting sold
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Unless SOS Arizona is an organization that excludes men, probably not best to describe it as teachers and moms. Should men in Arizona look elsewhere if they want to support public schools? Or is the “teachers and moms” language an indication that men’s contributions in this arena are unwelcome or undervalued? If we want to continue to build an egalitarian society, and get as much participation as we can for our efforts, exclusionary language is not the best way to make progress or allies.
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